ELR Citation: ELR 20450
No(s). 45984 (Ill. Mar 29, 1974)

The Supreme Court of Illinois reverses a lower court and rules that a state Environmental Protection Act provision allowing the Illinois Pollution Control Board to impose a monetary penalty of up to $10,000 against the city of Waukegan for operating a refuse disposal site without a permit from the state Environmental Protection Agency does not constitute an unlawful delegation of judicial power. The statute's grant of authority to an administrative agency to impose such discretionary civil penalties does not violate the constitutional separation of powers as that doctrine is currently interpreted by this court and the U.S. Supreme Court, especially in view of the Act's provisions for notice and detailed hearings, adequate judicial review, and protective guidelines which the Board must follow in exercising its fining power. The court notes that the statute established one agency, the state EPA, to make investigations and present complaints of environmental abuse, and another, the Pollution Control Board, to conduct hearings and make appropriate determinations and orders, including the imposition of penalties. This represents a reasonably appropriate scheme for the accomplishment of the legislative purpose of environmental protection, and, given the adequate standards and safeguards provided in the Act, must be upheld as constitutionally valid.

For the lower court's opinion see 3 ELR 20788; for divergent rulings in different districts of the same lower court, evidencing the split of authority that this decision resolves, see 3 ELR 20208 and 3 ELR 20905.

Counsel for Plaintiffs
Murray R. Conzelman
Conzelman, Schulz, O'Meara & Snarski
33 North County Street
Waukegan, IL 60085

Counsel for Defendants
William J. Scott, Attorney General
160 North LaSalle Street
Chicago, IL 60601